About William Klein

The social documentary tendencies of William Klein’s oeuvre find their roots in his hometown of New York City. Though he began as a painter working in Paris and Milan, Klein was enticed back to the U.S. by photography and immediately began working for Vogue. Klein's first assignment was to create a photo-journal of New York, a project that began his raw city portraits (succeeded ones of by Rome, Tokyo, and Moscow) where he aimed to personally intervene in the images, unlike the "invisible camera" of his predecessor Henri Cartier-Bresson. Though working for Vogue primarily to fund projects such as photo books and his now cult-films (like Who Are You Polly Maggoo), Klein became a renowned and revolutionary photographer both in fashion and elsewhere. He is best known for his garish and controversial images; grainy, high-contrast, and always via wide-angle lens.